Family Reunion
by CombineGLaDOS
Summary: Post ME3. The reapers have been stopped and Commander Hayley Shepard has been found alive. 4 months later, a mix up with blood test results leads to the shocking discovering that Lieutenant Tom Shepard's and Captain Hannah Shepard's last name's are more than a coincidence. Contains spoilers Female ShepardxLiara, Male ShepardxVarious human females. M for language and adult themes
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Ok so I got Mass Effect about a month ago and have beat the first and second game 3 times now and I'm on my third playthrough of Mass Effect 3, so I decided to take a stab at this.**  
><strong>The events of this story follow my femshep<strong> **playthough, but I'll reference my decisions from my mshep** **playthrough.**  
><strong>The female Shepard is earthbornwar hero/paragon**  
><strong>The male Shepard is spacersole survivor/renegade**

The hospital in Colony #4728 or New Leicester, as it was locally known, on Mars was beginning to lose patients. Not in the way of dying but having patients discharged, something that had taken a few months to achieve following the reaper war.

Over the last 4 months there had been a lot of rebuilding of cities, colonies and the citadel. 8 mass relays had been repaired and 3 were in the final stages of their repairs which allowed for patients who were discharged to be relocated, as the Mars refugee camps had far exceeded their capacity now as had the few that remained of Earth.

Captain Hannah Shepard paced the hall waiting for news on her son, 2nd Lieutenant Tom Shepard, who had been injured when a few rogues from a Mars colony jumped him and his squad.  
>His injuries were life threatening at first but he pulled through the worst.<p>

"Captain Shepard, your son is awake if you wish to see him" A salarian peered around the door for one of the rooms and gestured for Hannah to walk in. She didn't need to be told twice.

As Hannah entered the salarian walked past her, saying something about giving her and her son time alone, which Hannah was thankful for, as she had a lot to talk to her son about and she had a strong dislike for aliens, although she never considered herself a xenophobe.

Tom Shepard had always had facial scars, but seeing black and blue bruises on her son's face broke Hannah's heart. A bandage covered the young Shepard's left eye, and his right arm was in a sling, as both his ulna and eye socket had been fractured when he and his team were attacked. Hannah did not know who else was with him, but she knew one didn't survive while the other one sustained only a few minor injuries.

"Hey Mom" There was a slight chuckle in Tom's voice as he spoke, which was followed by a sharp intake of breath as pain took over his chest, as he was still recovering from bruised ribs.

"Hey sweetheart, how are you feeling?"

"Just fine Mom, not like I was dying or anything" Hannah could always credit her son on being a smart ass. Hell, she often attributed that trait to a lot of her childs scars and previous injuries, such as the fractured rib when he decided to pick a fight with a drunk, pissed off to hell krogan when he was 17.

The next hour or so was filled with conversation and a few smart ass remarks on both sides. Tom had not seen his mother for a year or so, and the catch up was great, something welcomed by both the older and younger Shepard in light of recent events.

Captain Shepard was about to leave when the salarian doctor from earlier arrived back in the room, and Hannah put her years of alliance training to use and stopped herself from groaning in protest of the salarians presence, however it was still apparent by her facial expression that she wanted the alien gone.

"Captain Shepard, your daughter is no longer critical, we have taken her off life support"

Tom was confused instantaneously, and was about to tell the doctor of his mistake and that he did not, in fact, have a sister, although not so politely, when he saw his mother's face.  
>The mixture of shock and horror meant his mother had more than a little explaining to do.<p>

**A/N: So I'm torn on whether I like this chapter or not, or whether to continue this at all.**  
><strong>I have 2 more chapters done but I'd appreciate reviews on whether to continue this or not!<strong>  
><strong>Thank you! <strong>


	2. Chapter 2

The routine buzzing of the life support finally ceased, and not a moment too soon for Doctor Liara T'Soni.

4 months ago, Liara was on the Normandy as the ship outran the beam from the crucible and crashed on a jungle planet. The damage wasn't extensive so the ship was able to leave after a couple system checks.

The first thing they did was get to the local cluster and search for Commander Hayley Shepard. It seemed fairly hopeless but as they were about to give up, Garrus, the Normandy's resident turian, spotted something unusual in the rubble of the citadel. The burnt armour, the N7 dogtag, the shoulder length crimson red hair. It was Commander Shepard.

They scooped her up and took her to the nearest hospital that was on Mars. She was practically dead when they arrived and the idea of losing her beloved Commander again emotionally destroyed Liara, but thankfully Shepard was beginning to pull through.

Shepard was not going to be awake for a while still but she wasn't reliant on a machine to breathe for her, and that was an improvement.

Liara took Shepard's hand in her own and thought of all the time they had spent together, how three times they broke alliance regulations -although the second time Commander Shepard was with the now disbanded Cerberus- how Shepard joked about 'old age, marriage and lots of little blue children'. Even the time Shepard told her and EDI to get back on the Normandy during the run to get to the citadel played on her mind for a while, but the anger and pain the memory held forced Liara to push it back into the furthest recesses of her mind.

Liara ran her fingers over the calluses that had formed on her girlfriends hand after years of shooting guns and hand to hand combat, primarily the former.

To Liara, Hayley Shepard was a beautiful 32 year old woman. Her crimson red shoulder length hair framed her face perfectly, making her cheeks and mouth look adorable and kissable. Her brown eyes were so easy for Liara to get lost in, and the black eyeshadow she always wore brought out the colour even more.

Liara felt so plain compared to her, but Hayley seemed to always make her forget how she felt; like it was her personal mission to make her happy.

"I just wish you'd wake up" Liara sighed, resting her head on Shepard's shoulder, which allowed her to feel the gentle rise and fall of her chest.

Liara was about to fall asleep when the door behind her opened.

"Your daughter is re-Oh sorry, I didn't realise there was already a visitor" The salarian doctor looked at Liara, and Liara looked at the woman next to him.

The woman had red hair that had began to grow grey in her age and chocolate brown eyes that had fine lines in the skin that surrounded them.

_This woman...she looks like Shepard,_ Liara thought silently.

_Is that...no...maybe?_

"Who are you?" The woman spoke with a trace of anger instantly, as if she had already judged the asari as being a lower life-form to her.

"I'm Doctor Liara T'soni, Commander Shepard's second-in-command. And you are?" Unlike the woman, Liara was able to hide anger and feelings with ease, thanks to 2 years as an information broker on Illium.

"Captain Hannah Shepard, Commander Shepard's mother"

_It is her._

**A/N: so this is up earlier than expected because, as I said I'm on my third playthrough of ME3 and I was skipping through dialogue and goofed and romanced Kaiden instead of Liara, and I really don't like Kaiden (honestly, I wish I saved Ashley) so instead of finishing chapter 4 I'm replaying through all the Tuchanka missions on narrative difficulty to get back to where I was asap.**

**Anyway please leave a review, it's good for my confidence and motivation :)**


	3. Chapter 3

"She lived her life without you! Why show up now!?" It was finally gone. Liara's normally cool manner had been replaced by anger at the mother of her girlfriend.

"I should not have to explain my actions to some cheap blue whore!" Hannah Shepard had her reasons for staying out of her daughters life, reasons she thought were sound and therefore required no explanation.

"I am not a whore" the asari retaliated, "Your daughter is the only woman I have ever loved!"

The salarian doctor hid in the corner, avoiding a beaker that the elder Shepard used her biotics to throw at Liara. The fight had escalated from verbal a while ago and security was on its way to remove Commander Shepard's mother and lover, while the woman herself stayed asleep, still recovering from her injuries.

When security arrived, Liara bowed her head in shame as she was lead out. She wanted to stay with Hayley, but her anger had gotten the better of her, so she accepted her fate and was taken outside. Hannah on the other hand continued to mutter her hatred for the shadow broker as she was taken away, not once turning to look at her sleeping daughter.

The visits had become less frequent now, instead of Liara spending all day and night with Hayley, she visited for an hour every other day, trying to stay away from her girlfriends mother who was always at the hospital, either in her daughter or sons room.

As the shadow broker, Liara had access to everything on everyone in the galaxy -this was how she discovered her father, Matriarch Aethyta, was actually alive- but never in her 18 months in the position had she looked at Commander Shepard's information. Had she looked, she would have known that Hannah Shepard was alive, not dead as her daughter had believed, and that she had a brother, Tom, who was 2nd Leiutenant in the alliance navy, but Liara was never able to bring herself to invade the woman she loved's privacy like that, so all this information was as new to her as it would be for Hayley Shepard when she woke up.

It was a normal visit for Liara today. Walk in, spend an hour wanting Shepard to wake up while hearing improvements on her condition, walk out. At least she thought.

"...Li...ara.." A struggling voice came from within the room and Liara could have sworn she felt her heart burst.

"Shepard! You're awake!" The asari's voice was thick with joy as she ran and threw her arms around the humans half reclined form.

"_Ow!_" Hayley grimaced, instinctively pushing her girlfriend away slighty as she was still sore from being burnt by harbingers beam and being blown up on the crucible 4 and a half months ago (Even with modern medicine, extensive burns and multiple fractured and not to mention organ damage still took a long time to heal).

"Did I hurt you? By the goddess I'm so sorry Shepard!"

"It's okay, Liara. Nothing a few seconds break won't fix" The Commander wore her normal smile, one that was slight but warm that never failed to put someone at ease. For a couple minutes Liara and Shepard just looked into each other's eyes and smiled. It felt good to be able to be together again, now that everything was over.

"Oh, you're awake I see" Hannah said as she walked in, Tom walking in just behind her.

_Oh no_ was all Liara managed to think.

"Who are you?"

"Wow, my sister can save the galaxy 3 times yet can't recognise her own mother" Tom smirked and leaned against the wall, the lighting of the room allowing for a shadow to fall across the top half of his face.

"That's a lie! my mother died years ago, during the first contact war" Even though Hayley was only 4 when her father died, the memory had remained vivid for the 28 years following it.

**A/N: Sorry the chapters are a bit short, but writing on evernote makes me overestimate the length. I'll try and lengthen them but please don't kill me if they are short xD**

**Also any formatting errors are not my fault, it just doesn't copy and paste from evernote too well**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: okay so part of this particular chapter may be distressing because it involves a parents death, so if you don't want to read it, skip the second lot of italics. The first is fine though.**

_Terry Shepard strapped his young daughter into the back seat of the car, making sure her seat belt was secure before going to sit in the front seat._

_Sky cars were new to humans, and came about after the end of the first contact war the previous year, but Terry preferred the old fashioned 4 wheel on-the-ground cars, feeling they were better for his daughters safety._

_"Where are we going today, Hayley?"_

_"To the toy store!" Hayley large grin on her face that revealed a gap in her front teeth, and Terry smiled back at his daughters reflection in the rear view mirror before drawing his attention to starting the car._

"She isn't lying, she really is" Liara looked at Hayley, but instantly looked towards the ground when she saw anger begin to twist into the human woman's face.

"And you never told me?!" The Commander yelled

"I did not know up until a few days ago" Liara was unable to bring her voice up to more than a mutter, as she felt as though she had betrayed her love, "I never wanted to invade your privacy, so I never checked..."

"Oh? Well what happened to you being a 'very good information broker'?" Hayley was blind with fury to the point she didn't notice Liara had started to cry. Hannah and Tom just stood back and smiled as the Commander broke her beloved girlfriend. "You never took long to go into my background before, so why would you stop?"

"Shepard...I'm-"

"Get out Liara!" Hayley glared at the other two Shepard's in the room "and you can leave too!"

Tom chuckled slightly as he and his mother turned to leave the room after Liara, who covered her face to hide her tears as she ran down the corridor to get out the hospital.

Hayley ran her left hand through her hair and fought back her own tears that developed due to anger but threatened to fall due to the realisation of her actions. She had never yelled at Liara like that before and it was already clear that she regretted shouting at her like that. All Shepard did to deal with what she had done was roll over and cry herself to sleep for the first time since the asari was cold to her when she met her again on Illium.

_The traffic reached out for about a mile, and Terry rested his head on the steering wheel and sighed, while Hayley sat in the back seat, pressing her face against the window and looking at the sky cars that flew past 25 ft from the ground._

_"I want one" The young girl pointed up at the sky cars and Terry followed her finger._

_"Maybe when you're older, sweetie" he smiled and tried to ignore the realisation that when his daughter learned to drive, she would be driving one of those flying death traps. Ever since she had been born 4 years ago, the idea of anything bad happening to Hayley made Terry lose the will to live._

_When Terry turned to look forward again, he noticed a small flickering light above him. Looking up he saw a small fire that flared up one the part of the sky car that housed the engine, before the car itself came hurtling towards the ground, impacting just short of the front Shepard's car._

_The explosion happened quickly, so fast that Hayley's young mind didn't process the loud bang and bright flash until a couple seconds after it was over.._

_"Daddy?" Hayley whispered, noticing her father slumped over in the front seat, covered in burns and cuts, completely still, "wake up"._

_"There's a kid over here! Get her out!" The voice of a middle aged woman came close to Hayley, who was still focusing entirely on her father, unaware of her own injuries._

_"Da-no!" The small redhead fought to keep herself in the car as the woman desperately tried to pull her out, "daddy!" . She reached forward and grabbed her dad's arm, but the blood caused her to lose her grip and the woman finally managed to pull her out._

"Dad!" Hayley sat up straight in her hospital bed, covered in a thin film of cold sweat. It only took a couple seconds for her back and ribs to feel like they were on fire, at which point she leaned back and took up her normal half reclined position. She inhaled and exhaled deeply while pinching the bridge of her nose, a tactic she taught herself back when she joined the tenth street reds, to help her deal with massive emotional stress.

She brought her hand up and ran it over part of her face, feeling for the scar that had long since vanished after Cerberus brought her back from the dead, thanks to Miranda Lawson and the Lazarus Project. Although everyone on the Normandy assumed it was due to her efforts on Elysium, she knew it had come from shrapnel hitting her after the sky car exploded. What scars she had from Elysium used to be on her torso anyway, one of which went straight through the tattoo she got when she was in the Tenth Street Reds, which she was thankful for.

Hayley had not dreamt about her fathers death for years, but until she was 15, it was a recurring nightmare for her.

When she was 5, her adoptive parents took her to a doctor, after realising she still screamed at night for her dad, and how she often talked about the car accident. She was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder but her 'parents' refused to help her, and let her carry on with her endless psychological suffering. It stopped around the time she became addicted to Hallix and Red Sand (Strictly speaking, Hayley is a biotic, but her abilities were deemed to weak to use, as she couldn't even move tissue paper with the tester implant), and even when she stopped, she had joined the Alliance Navy and that always kept her focused, and seemed to stop the recurring nightmares, but now the war is over, she was terrified that she would relapse.

She decided to not sleep again that night.

**A/N: bit of a sad chapter, sucks for christmas...**

**Anyway, Merry Christmas/Happy [insert holiday here]/Happy Thursday! Thanks for sticking with this so far, and I hope you all have a fantastic christmas (or whatever today is for you) and a wonderful new year :)**


	5. Chapter 5 (Fixed)

**A/N: So as I type this, the end credits of ME3 are on my tv****and wow, the music that plays right at the end is some emotionally charged stuff, isn't it? Still gives me chills after my 3rd playthrough...seriously love an end once and for all...and leaving earth.**  
><strong>Aaaand<strong>**onto the forth playthrough** **(what is this life thing you speak of?)**

It had been a few days since Hayley woke up, and no one had visited the commander since she told Liara, her mother and her brother to leave. Whenever the door opened, excitement swelled in her chest, only to be replaced by disappointment when a doctor walked in. Today was no different.

"Commander Shepard, I have some bad news and some good news" Today it was a human doctor, not a stranded salarian just helping out or a turian that had little idea on what to do.

"Well, might as well hit me with the bad news, can't make my day much worse" Hayley sighed and examined the burn scars that ran up and down her arms.

"As you are aware, you sustained multiple injuries, and while most have healed with no lingering effects, some have not. Have you noticed anything strange about feeling in your right hand?" The doctor looked down at his datapad while he spoke, and looked up at Shepard while he awaited an answer.

"It's felt numb a lot. Doesn't feel like I have good grip strength, why?" Of course Hayley already knew the answer would be nerve damage, but didn't know to what extent it would be.

"You're hand and wrist were in bad shape, and we are certain you have severe nerve damage. We are unsure if the damage will repair itself," The doctor paused while Hayley sighed inwardly "You also had a spinal fracture. You should still have feeling in your lower body, but you will need to learn to walk again, and even then, you will have a permanent limp as your left ankle was fractured severely" The doctor lowered the datapad and Hayley stared down at her hands and tried to take in what she had been told. She almost laughed when one of her first thoughts was _forced retirement here I come!_

"...Good news?" she said, after what felt like a 5 minute silence, but in reality barely broke a galactic standard minute.

"The good news is you have recovered well, all things considered. You should be able to be discharged at the end of the week" The doctor did a couple checks on the commanders stats before he left her alone to continue collecting her thoughts.

**-Tom-**

Tom did up his belt and silently slipped out of the room. Having left hospital he wasted no time in getting back into his usually ways of sleeping with anything he could. Today it was some random woman on Mars, but he never caught her name, not that he actually cared, because he wasn't going to speak to her again.

Before he left he received a message on his omni-tool from his mother, who asked him to meet her in the quarters in which they were staying.

It was strange, knowing the great, Commander Shepard was actually his long lost sister. The first human spectre who rallied the galaxy's forces to take down the reapers was born to the same woman as he was. It somewhat destroyed the lieutenants bravado, but sparked minor interest in him. He wanted to get to know her, but he disagreed with virtually everything she stood for. Plus she seemed like a goody-two shoes, and what fun is there in that?

Tom walked down the corridor, avoiding the refugee's that had yet to be moved and had taken up sleeping in everyone's way in the meantime. Having been brought up on various alliance vessels and bases, blocked corridors irritated him far more than it would anyone else, thus giving him the want to kick the crap out of them, only stopping himself when he realised he was an alliance marine and it wouldn't look too good on his record.

Tom was too tied up in his own thoughts when someone bumped into him.

"Sorry" the woman said and she took a step back. She looked as though she had been through hell recently, frantic worry across her face.

"Hey, watch where you're going. And it's sorry sir, I'm a lieutenant" Tom had no patience for anyone ever, unless he was trying to talk them into bed.

"Sorry sir. And it's ma'am, I'm an alliance Commander" It was at this point Tom noticed the chain around the woman's neck and the dogtag that hung against her. Suddenly Tom lost his tough guy exterior, as one of his biggest fears was pissing off his superiors, even though he had done it multiple times.

"Oh...I'm-"

"Amy, I found them" A purple skinned asari ran up to the alliance Major and grabbed her tattooed arm, the frantic worry on her face being replaced by relief.

"Oh my god, thank you Tariyah!" She hugged the asari, a little too long for a friendship hug, and they both ran down the corridor and out of sight, much to Tom's relief, because now he didn't have to apologise to her.

The lieutenant continued to the area where his mother was staying, tucking his own dogtag into his shirt so no one stopped him, something his mother had told him to do as it had become a mandatory requirement for all alliance marines to wear their dogtags so they were visible at all times, something to do with making it easier to get help.

When he reached his mother, he took notice of the empty shelves in the room. It appeared she was packing to leave and it was then Tom noticed his own things thrown on top of a case at random.

"We're leaving" Hannah placed her neatly folded trousers into her footlocker without giving her son even a sideways glance.

"Why?"

"Your sister's getting out soon, and that damned asari is likely to go running straight to her or vice versa. I cannot stand that thing a moment longer" Tom could understand his mothers frustration. He hated Liara about as much as she did, because she acted like she was the most important thing in his sisters world. Plus she was an alien, and while Tom will deny it to his grave, the reality is he is severely xenophobic.

**-Liara-**

"I hope to talk again soon" Liara nodded in acknowledgment to Feron's goodbye and hung up the call on her omnitool.

The drell surviving the war made Liara somewhat relieved. Those two had become incredibly close and being the shadow broker was demanding, so having someone who she could trust to take some of the workload, albeit not that much, made her life slightly easier.

Of course, at this current moment she was using Feron as a distraction from Shepard. The way she shouted at her still stayed in her mind and it had rendered her unable to talk to her again, because she was worried about how she would be. Would she be sorry about yelling, or think Liara deserved it?  
>Liara couldn't imagine it being the latter, but the slight chance it could be that was difficult for her to deal with, so she decided to avoid visiting her.<p>

The asari's omni tool beeped as a message came through informing her about her bondmates release from hospital.

"Already?" Liara said to no one in particular. It then occurred to her that the crew of the Normandy were unaware as to Shepard's current condition, and if she were to get Shepard of Mars and preferably to some non-war damaged place, she would need a decent ship.

Liara scrolled through her contacts and tried to pick the best person to speak to. Joker was still in pieces over EDI and his father (his sister had survived however), understandably, Garrus was probably back on Palaven, Kaidan was off on spectre business and James had began his N7 training. Basically everyone she could find was no good. The worst part was seeing Tali on the list, but the immediate rush of emotions was pushed into the back of Liara's mind.

Liara eventually decided the although a Normandy get together was needed, it would be best to leave it for a while and settled on calling a business owner on Illium who owed her a few favours.

It was time to go talk to Shepard.

**A/N: Ok so I may or may not have done a self insert****and I made myself pretty awesome but I can assure you I will not do that again**.

**Also yes, I saved the geth****over the quarians, it was an accident and I felt so bad seeing Tali****die. So no Garrus****and Tali, unfortunately. There's also another pairing I like who won't be here, but you can find out later**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: I feel I should point out, when I refer to Shepard in dialogue, assume I mean Hayley unless I say otherwise**.  
><strong>Also, there is post sexy time stuff here...I refuse to write an actual sex scene because I feel awkward writing the many synonyms for 'breasts' and 'vagina' (and its various parts)...and 'penis' if there is a guy<strong> **or futa (yes I'm 17 and know what that is. If you don't know, I'm not telling you)**

**Also scene changes are being made super obvious now because whenever I type dashes they bugger off to Narnia whenever I post a chapter.**

****Hayley begrudgingly sat in the wheelchair the hospital provided her with, trying to focus on her upcoming physiotherapy which would help her be able to walk again.

She thought about where she was going. She knew she wasn't staying on Mars, and Earth was still a no go for anyone who wasn't trying to help with the post-war clean up. It felt strange, as for the first time in her 32 years, she actually wanted to know where she was going as the excitement of mystery seemed lost following all that she had been through.

"Hello, Shepard" Hayley was snapped out of her thoughts by the gentle voice that came from the doorway. _Liara_.

Her first instinct was to ask her where the hell she had been and why she stopped visiting her, but she held back when she realised it was probably her fault for yelling at her and "Hey, Liara" flowed from her mouth instead, although she avoided eye contact.

"Are you ready to go?"

"Where?"

"Thessia. I know it sounds like a bad idea, but part of the planet remained untouched by reapers and-"

"That sounds nice" Shepard interrupted Liara. In the 3 years she had known her (although it was more a year as Hayley was dead for 2 of them), she had seen her grow from the shy, asari maiden into a woman that could hold her own, who could be both gentle and caring as well as utterly terrifying. One habit she never seemed to have lost was her rambling when she was nervous, although Hayley found it adorable.

Liara went to the back of Shepard's wheelchair and began escorting her towards the shuttle that would take them to the one untouched part of the shadow brokers homeworld. She had been to that part before, when she was in her 40's, and she never recalled seeing such a beautiful place.

There were mountains that surrounded a lake that had sand at the edges, almost like a hidden beach. The position of the sun meant it always rose between the two smallest mountains and set between the two largest ones. The only thing Liara didn't like was the house there for tourists to stay, as it was typical asari architecture and therefore totally out of place for an area of natural beauty, although the two large windows that started on the first floor and ended on the second allowed for whoever was inside to see the mountains that framed the sun, which the asari thought was a nice touch. Although this memory was 60, almost 70 years old, so there is every chance the place has changed somewhat, but Liara's sources had informed her that it hadn't.

**-To Thessia-**

The shuttle ride took about a day and it was early evening when they arrived, due to damaged mass relays that, while they were mostly repaired, sometimes didn't quite get the shuttle to the right location as the shuttle sometimes decelerated too early.

When they arrived, Liara felt as though she was a child again, and the look of amazement on Hayley's face shown her that she had made the correct decision by bringing her here, although it was thrown into doubt when she started laughing.

"What's so funny?" The maiden tried to hide her instant concern but failed miserably.

"Nothing. This place is beautiful, Liara. It's just that it has taken a near death experience and an actual death to get me to appreciate things like this" Hayley looked up and smiled at her girlfriend, hoping that she imagined the brief pain in her eyes.

"Okay, Hayley. Should we go inside?"

"I don't know why you're asking me. You are pushing me around after all" the human woman feigned annoyance and for the first time since Liara had come to visit her on the Normandy after becoming the shadow broker, she heard the asari laugh. Not forced laugh, or a small giggle because of an intimate moment, but a genuine laugh from being happy and amused.

As Liara began to push her towards the entrance of the house where they would be staying for the next two weeks, she heard Hayley tell her that she loved her, and she replied with the same.

**-Later-**

****_3 months._

_3 months since the reapers arrived. 3 months since Earth fell. 3 months since the crucible plans were recovered from the Mars Archives, and this is what those plans-what the galaxy's efforts came down to._

_Hayley stood next to the catalyst and considered her 3 choices._

_Control, synergy or destroy?_

_This was not a decision for a mere soldier to make. Whatever she chose would affect the galaxy forever, and while she will not live to see the effects, the reality was people she cared about might do..._

_Shepard held the gun she somehow managed to keep with her up at the catalyst, ready to admit defeat and let the reapers have their way with this cycle, but before she pulled the trigger ,she looked behind her and at Earth._

_Balls of orange and red were plunging into the atmosphere, with vessels from one of the many fleets brought to the battle still putting up a fight, blue beams of light flashing and impacting the reapers that broke through the galaxy's combined forces, one frigate at a time_, _with most not obtaining a single burn to their exterior metal casing_.

_The exploding vessels had parents, children, grandchildren, siblings, spouses, friends -an endless list of people, not all human, some asari, turian, salarian_ _and so on, who are giving their lives for this war, hoping someone stops the reapers before there is no one who can miss them. Before there is no one left to miss_.

_The Normandy and her crew could be one of those exploding fireballs, or it could be far away...it could have already gone back through the Charon Relay to keep them safe and...what? They'll be alive, expecting Hayley to end this...only to find out the crucible never fired. That Hayley willingly chose to let them die._

_That final thought forced Commander Shepard to face her choices again._

_"Shepard" The commander looked at the catalyst for a second, certain that she heard it speak, before returning her gaze at what was ahead_.

_"Shepard" 2 metal handles with a current surging through them-Control...the reapers will be Hayley..._

_"Hayley Shepard" A greenish-blue beam of light, filling the space between the citadel and the catalyst_-_Synergy...all organics are synthetic, all synthetics are organic..._

_"Hayley" A single power conduit, with a reddish glow surrounding it-Destroy...the reapers will be gone, and so will the geth, and so will EDI._

_"Wake up Hayley!"_

Hayley sat upright in bed and panted. It took her a good few seconds to realise she was no longer on the citadel, but safe in bed at a tourists house on Thessia. She looked down to see she was holding Liara's hand so tight, the asari's skin had become a lighter shade of blue, before looking at the hands owner, who's eyes were conveying limitless amounts of worry. It took Hayley a couple seconds to acknowledge the fact she should release her grip on Liara's hand, as her own knuckles were white, therefore she must have been hurting her girlfriend.

"Hayley, you were having a bad dream" Liara sat up herself and began stroking the humans hair with her now dead hand to comfort her. Liara had always found hair strange, as asari didn't possess it, but she liked how it felt soft and looked shiny...well, when it wasn't caked in post-combat mess, which was fairly often for Hayley prior to the end of the reaper war.

"Yeah...what happened at the citadel I just..." Hayley paused for a second trying to find the right words, "Have you ever made a decision, not knowing if it was the right thing?"

Liara looked away from Hayley for a second, trying to think of a situation where she had done the same thing, smiling and turning back to the Commander when she thought of one, "Before Ilos. I didn't know if we were going to die, and I wanted to tell...and show you how I felt" a smile ghosted the red heads lips, "but I was unsure if you felt the same...or even if I felt the right way to do it. In the end, I-what's that saying you humans use for stupid things? Ah! In the end I threw caution to the wind...and I'm glad I did"

"Hayley, what you have done was the right choice. I don't know what happened, and whether you show me or not is your decision to make, but what you did meant we are still here and the reapers are not" Shepard was beginning to feel tired again, content by how Liara was playing with her hair.

"I wish it was that easy..." Hayley rested her head on Liara's shoulder and allowed herself to fall asleep again.

**-Next Morning-**

The next morning Hayley was lying on the bed spread out like a star fish, and when she woke up, the first thing she noticed was the drying drool that was present on her cheek and pooling on the bed sheets.

"Liara?" She lifted her head slightly as she tried to blink the morning haze from her vision.

She could hear some movement in the kitchen that was across from the downstairs bedroom (wheelchairs and stairs don't go well together) and there was a pleasant smell drifting under the crack under the door, accompanied by the faint sunlight that also crawled along the wooden floor.

Hayley flipped over and went to stand up, totally forgetting about her minor spinal fracture and falling to the ground with a heavy sounding thud that clearly caught the attention of the asari in the kitchen.

"Hayley, was that you?" She called, her voice coming closer.

"Don't worry, it's all under control"

Liara opened the door to see Shepard flat on the floor, her hair a total mess as she picked her head up and gave a reassuring smile.

"Shepard, when you say 'don't worry', I worry. Also, 'under control' is something you normally say when the circumstances are not, in any way, shape or form, under control" Liara sighed before helping her girlfriend to sit on the bed again.

"That is not true" Shepard defended herself, only for Liara to respond with an unimpressed stare, "okay maybe it is, sometimes"

"Always"

"Yeah whatever..." Shepard looked down at the ground trying to be annoyed, but she failed miserably as she burst into a fit of laughter, which caused Liara to smile.

"I made breakfast. It's an omelette. Do you want me to bring it into you, or bring you out to it?" Considering Shepard's current predicament, the question was entirely valid, and she opted to eat it in the bedroom, to save Liara from pushing her around for awhile.

Liara left the room and promptly returned with what Shepard assumed was the omelette, but was more of a blackened mess haphazardly positioned in the middle of the plate.

Hayley grabbed the fork and hoped the shadow brokers...creation tasted better than it looked. The human pressed the fork sideways into the black mound and pushed through so she could get a little bit on the fork.

_At least it's the correct colour on the inside_

Suddenly feeling Liara's eyes burning into her, she brought the fork to her mouth and ate what was lovingly prepared for her.

"How is it?"

"It's delicious" Hayley smiled up at Liara, forcing herself to take another bite. "Mm-mm"

"Would you like some cereal?" Liara sighed after watching her girlfriend take another bite, that was much smaller than the previous two.

"I'm sorry..."

"It's okay. I thought it looked wrong...extranet recipes looked nothing like that. I just assumed that you liking bacon slightly burnt meant you like eggs that way too" The asari brought her hand up and rubbed the back of her neck, feeling herself blush slightly.

"Liara, the king of meat does not compare to the spawn of a chicken!" Shepard adopted her commanding tone of voice to try and heighten the humour of the statement that seemed to have flew 50 miles above Liara's head. Of course, bacon and chickens have no significance to asari, seeing as they have no equivalent of the former, and no idea what the latter even is, since chickens were extinct and all eggs now came from ducks (although this wasn't until about a decade ago, hence why most people still refer to eggs coming from chickens).

Following breakfast, Liara and Hayley sat in a shallow area of the lake, as neither of them trusted the latter would be able to tread water and not drown. They found a few stones under the sand and Hayley taught the asari how to throw them so they bounced along the surface instead of disappearing under the it the first time they hit the water. It took a few attempts before she mastered it, and they were both somewhat amused at their disappointment when they ran out of stones to throw, but they quickly got over it by just cuddling together.

The rest of the morning was spent being happy in each others company, and this continued until late in the afternoon.

**-Night Time-**

Liara moved herself up Shepard's body, rested her head on her chest and wrapped an arm around her possessively, listening to her heartbeat that began to slow quickly, due to how physically fit she was, all things considered. The erratic rise and fall of her chest began to return to its usual slow, steady rhythm and relax Liara even more than she already was.

"I love you" The thought echoed around the meld that the asari had yet to pull back from, only severing the ties when Shepard's exhaustion made it hard to maintain the meld as she subconsciously began to throw up her mental barriers again.

"I love you, too" They both said in unison, as neither were sure who had the original thought. Although it was late summer in the particular region of Thessia, the nights were beginning to grow cold and Liara decided to pull the blanket up over her and her lover before the temperature dropped too much and caused them to be cold.

"Isn't it a little warm for that?" Hayley sounded exhausted, and her eyes were closed as she spoke to Liara. Of course, Liara forgot 10° is cold for asari, but for Hayley it's still warm as she grew up in Vancouver, which had an unstable temperature since global warming took its hold, but it usually never got any warmer than 15°.

"Sorry..."

"It's okay. It's not unbearable. It's actually really *yawn* comfortable" Hayley laughed slightly and a couple seconds later, her breathing became deeper as she fell asleep.

Liara smiled up at the sleeping commander, before nestling her head into her chest and falling asleep herself.


	7. Chapter 7

The SSV Orizaba was by far the largest ship Tom had ever been on.

Following Akuze and before the reaper war, Tom had been doing shore duty on Arcturus and he only returned to active ship duty aboard the SSV Hong-Kong when the reapers first hit the Alliance Base, and the size of a frigate was nothing compared to that of a dreadnought.

One upside to the size of a dreadnought meant Tom got his own room, courtesy of his mother, and didn't have to share a room with 19 other marine's with various sleeping patterns and sleep volumes.

There was also a lounge, which quite a few vessels had as a place for marine's to kick back and relax, but one that had a fully equipped bar as well as a tv with a decent sports channel (as well as a couple other channels Tom approved of) was something that was hard to come by.

The only downside was that, due to the size of the ship and amount of those on board, there was only access to the extranet at dedicated terminals down on the crew deck, and the ratio of crew members to terminals was a fairly large one, which made it a rarity to get extranet access every day.

It was close to 3 am ship time, and the lieutenant had to be up at 6 am to resume duties, as being aboard the ship your mother's in command of does not relieve you of duty, so Tom got into bed and tried to get to sleep.

An hour passed, and Tom had been staring at the back of his eyelids trying to achieve sleep, but to no avail. When he opened his eyes and looked at the clock, he smiled to himself, finding it somewhat amusing that, during the war, he had always slept well, something that most people didn't, and it was only after the war he stopped being able to sleep as well, due to the fact he wasn't exhausted from endless hours of combat and potential death anymore, and was usually well rested.

After another 40 minutes of staring at the ceiling or the back of his eyelids, Tom got up and went to get some breakfast. Another downside to the dreadnought was it had the same regulation food for an alliance vessel, which was beans, rice, eggs, several dried and canned fruit and vegetables and 'meat' (comprised of beef mince, lamb mince, fish mince, pork mince and various other types of mince mashed together) amongst other delicacies. Of course there was a lot of non-regulation food items that the crew had brought on board, but they were all labeled with names (and the occasional death threat) to stop other crew members stealing them. After the raid in the fridge turned up nothing, Tom settled on a couple regulation nutrient bars from the cupboard. They looked edible and similar to a chocolate bar, although after one bite he wished he risked 'having his balls sold to some backwards krogan on Omega' for a muffin.

"You're awake early" Tom looked up to see Hannah walking towards the mess hall from her quarters.

"Couldn't get sleep" The younger Shepard took another bite from the nutrient bar, before ramming what was left into his mouth so he could start on the second and end the ordeal with the terrible food faster.

"You're so much like your father" Hannah laughed as she watched her son shove the whole of the second bar in his mouth at once.

"Wha'?" He managed to form around the chewed up food in his mouth, spitting a few crumbs in the general direction of his mother by accident.

"Your father. He ate enough for himself and the crew of the Einstein." The Captain (Hannah's promotion to rear-admiral was only effective during the war) smiled as she reminisced the time she had with him. Tom's father died while he was still young, when he was 7 years old after a run of the mill mission took a turn, and he refused to surrender to the vorcha that caught him and his squad. As Tom was a spacer, he went to Alliance schools which meant that he didn't see his parents that much after the age of 5, so his memories of his father were hazy at best.

"Ha! What else I get from him?" Conversations like this were a rare occurrence, as his fathers death never stopped having an effect on his mother, so the lieutenant was sure as hell going to milk it.

"Well there's your looks, and your attitude" Deep down, both of them knew the latter was a wonderful combination from both parents, "also your metabolism," she gestured to the empty packets on the table.

"And your dashing personality came from me" His Mother grinned. Tom laughed at first then let out a happy sigh while his mother just continued to grin at him.

Hannah eventually got up to get herself some breakfast as she was due on the bridge in 2 hours to start her shift. Tom was thankful he didn't go for the muffin, because it turned out that was his mothers and she was often credited for being a woman of her word. Her son was also going to work on the bridge as her yeoman, something which he had no experience in yet wasn't all that hard to master when one of the Orizaba's rules was: 'if it's not from an alliance admiral, ignore it'.

After a few more minutes of mother-son talk, Tom went down to the shuttle bay to do some quick exercises before his shift started, as lying in a hospital bed then doing virtually nothing for a few weeks had began to make him a little soft around the edges. He couldn't even rely on his favourite 'exercise', as he had fell behind his game a lot, the woman on Mars being the last woman he got into bed with since Arcturus went from an alliance base to a mass grave.

When he arrived down on the lowest deck, someone was already training with the weights he planned on using, so he settled for doing a few pull ups instead, seeing if he could beat his high score of 70 before his muscles gave out on him.

"You're Captain Shepard's son" The woman who was using the weights accused.

"What makes you say that?"

"Not seen you before, also she seems very warm to you" Tom had to admit, this woman was observant, as his mother was nice to a select number of crew members and he noted that most of those had been on the ship a while, otherwise she was cold and somewhat bitchy to the others. The newer the crew member, the colder and bitchier she was.

"Well aren't you observant"

"Before I joined the Alliance, I was trying to get a degree is psychology. I notice small changes in people behaviour pretty well" The woman smiled as she continued to lift weights. She didn't look particularly feminine as taut muscles were more evident on her figure than curves, and Tom made a mental note not to cross her in case she snapped him in half.

"What happened?" Tom wasn't really interested but he saw no harm on continuing the conversation. Well, unless this woman had short temper, then he'd be in a lot of pain and possibly made into some dumbbells.

"I failed out of it. Pretty damn hard too. Decided to join the alliance so I could hopefully make something of my life, seeing as my career in psychology flew out the window" She said nonchalantly.

"And here you are, lifting weights and talking to the Captain's son after surviving giant squid-bots from space" Tom smirked and felt as though he had achieved something great when the woman let out a laugh, "what's your name anyway?"

"Emily. And yours?" Of course she didn't know Tom's name, it never crossed his mind until this point.

"Tom Shepard" He let go of the pull up bar, taking a mental note of how many pull ups he did (52), and dropped to the ground, walking over to shake Emily's hand once she put down the weights.

"Say, you and the captain wouldn't happen to be related to the Commander Shepard, would you?" Her face was the definition of curiosity, and Tom felt anger grow inside him, as he had the horrible feeling that he would now be nothing more than 'Commander Shepard's brother'.

"Maybe...we don't talk" It was only then he noticed the time, 6:30, and realised he needed to shower and get to the bridge asap. "Sorry, I've got to run"

Emily watched as Tom pushed passed her and ran to the elevator. "Bye, Tom"

**-Later on, on the bridge-**

The shift was...boring, to put it lightly. Most calls that came through were just distress signals from various non-human vessels. There was one call from Admiral Hackett that made the shift slightly more bearable, but he was asking for a frigate to help some refugees out on Pluto, not a full scale dreadnought to do something exciting.

Hannah was having about as much fun as Tom, reading through emails on her private terminal that were mostly about the mass relays and the citadels varying states of repair. There was an interesting ANN article that found its way into her inbox about a couple cities on Earth accepting people back in while most of the planet was still recovering from the reapers. One of which was Vancouver, which had become a dreadful city in recent years, and therefore probably looked better following the reapers invasion. It certainly couldn't be any worse.

"Mom, it's the end of my shift" Tom whined, looking over at Hannah and acting like a 4 year old.

"And you can stay there until it's the end of mine, Tom" The lieutenant sighed in protest before bashing his head on the Comm Terminal in frustration. "Can you refrain from doing that, you don't need to add to your scars, nor get blood on the console"

"They add character" Tom laughed, raising his eyebrows which caused the light to catch the large scar over his left eyebrow, making Hannah sigh angrily and pinch the bridge of her nose to stop an outburst of fury from coming out.

"Go on. You're relieved" she said finally, before her son fist pumped and ran to the elevator, so he could watch a game of biotiball, even though it was a charity game between some asari team he hadn't heard of and the Eezo Warriors, a team from Los Angeles that won the trophy for 'most score attempts in a match' the previous year. It wasn't a great trophy, more like an award saying 'you tried!' but Tom had made a bet that they would win, putting a whole 300 credits on it, already thinking what visual delights he would buy when he won the current prize of 2,134 credits.


	8. Chapter 8

"I don't understand how this works, Hayley" Liara sat with Hayley's legs lying across her, watching the tv trying to figure out exactly what was going on.

"Okay, it's kind of like basketball, except they can't touch the ball and have to use their biotics instead to pass it along the court and into one of the three hoops" The human explained. To be fair that was her entire understanding of biotiball, as she had only seen it once before with Cortez and James, but she enjoyed watching it, even if she had no idea what was going on at first.

"Oh I see" Liara grabbed a handful of chips and ate them, wondering why she never tried this particular human food before.

"You have no idea what basketball is, do you?" Hayley smiled at her before gesturing for Liara to pass her some food as well.

"No." The asari admitted, feeling embarrassed at her lack of knowledge when it came to human sports, although biotiball was more of a sport for any race that had biotics.

"Well, just watch and it might make sense" Hayley said around the food in her mouth.

2 hours and a lot of food later, the match was over. The Eezo Warriors suffered a horrific defeat by the Tehron Titans, with the final score being 427-9, which was to be expected, as the former were one of the worst Earth teams, and the latter won the Thessia International Championship 40 years in a row, but it didn't stop Liara from jumping off the sofa and yelling with joy at her species victory.

"I'm glad you understand the game now"

Nothing made Shepard happier than seeing Liara happy. It had been that way since just after she met her, back on Therum. She never believed in all that love at first sight crap, not after the first girl she ever dated lead to her getting massively screwed over, but the very first time she saw the asari, she instantly wanted to get to know her and be her friend, possibly more. She would never have thought in a million years that she would be lying on a sofa, being simply happy to watch the asari jump for joy over a sports teams victory.

"This is a fantastic game, Shepard. Oh I wish we did sports at school, I would love to have played that" Liara's statement confused Hayley, as she was sure every school for every race did sports, except maybe the hanar. What sports would they even play, toss the sea sponge?

"I thought all schools did sport. I know the Earth schools did, even if I never went" Due to living on the streets since she was 5, Hayley never went to school, but she taught herself to read, and she had to learn to write to help out with drug deals back when she still ran with the tenth street reds.

"Oh no. Asari's are naturally agile and fit, and where you would have done sport, we would have done biotic training" Of course, asari were trained in biotics when they were young under the assumption they would use them when they were older. It also taught younger asari with powerful biotics how to control them without an inhibitor. When Liara was young, her biotics required her to have an inhibitor, as her mother frequently reminded her of the time she launched her across the room when she was 3 months old by accident, as baby asari had biotic outbursts.

_That will be a fun thing_ _to_ _explain to Hayley when we have a daughter_

"This has been fun Shepard, but we should get to bed. I have a surprise for you tomorrow" Liara smiled and Hayley's mind raced through every single possibility. She hated surprises, because they were usually bad and involved someone getting injured, but her girlfriend couldn't possibly have bad surprise for her.

"Oh what is it?"

"Wait and see" The asari went behind Shepard and helped her up to move her into the wheelchair. She began taking her to the bedroom when she stopped her.

"Hey Liara, I just remembered I've got to speak to Alliance Officials. You set up the vid comm stuff, right?"

"Of course...I suppose sleep can wait" Liara made a u-turn and took Shepard to the make-shift comm room, leaving her in there as the human assured her she could wheel herself to the bedroom on her own.

When the link was up, Hayley saw a holographic Admiral Hackett, who still looked a little worse for wear following the war.  
>She instinctively saluted him, as she always had done, and he did the same.<p>

"Commander Shepard, I read your medical file and have some news regarding your position in the Alliance"

_Here it comes_

"So I assume you know most my injuries will heal, admiral" Having spent the past week with no one but Liara (she asked how she kept 'interested individuals' away from the property, but the asari was...evasive, on that matter) she had grown accustomed to not using her 'Commander Shepard' voice, and her 'Hayley Shepard' voice came through instead, although the admiral didn't seem to mind, in fact Hayley could have sworn she saw him crack a smile.

"Yes, but the damage to your wrist and ankle could make you a liability in combat, and we have came to the decision to retire you from your post" Hackett stated flatly, "but you may continue to serve with the alliance"

Hayley tossed the thought about it around in her mind; continuing in the alliance would mean that she would be doing as desk job, although she would be doing something more stimulating than clerical duties, given that she was the most famous human in the galaxy, but Hayley was a woman of action. Ever since she was young she had been fighting, whether it be for her next meal, or some gangbanger who believed they could do what they want with her as she was a girl, or even the reapers, and the idea of stopping that to become the Alliance's poster girl (not that she wasn't already), where everyone would hang on to her every word then bitch about her behind her back was one she was not at all in favour of.

"Admiral, with all due respect I have never saw eye to eye with people who sit back and watch everyone else do the work, and I could never imagine myself in such a position. Are there no other options?" That was true. The effort it took for Shepard to silence herself when talking to the council was massively under-appreciated, like when Councillor Sparatus grilled her for releasing the rachni queen. All she wanted to do was punch him so hard that when he hit the floor his rear crests would become his eyebrows, but seeing as he was only a hologram and disconnecting the call wouldn't be nearly as satisfying, she grit her teeth and bared it and in the end, her choice turned out to be the right decision. The same could be said about Valern over the Thorian, a dangerous species that deserved destruction for controlling the minds of the colonists on Feros.

"I'm afraid the only other option, given your condition, is full retirement. As you have served for 14 years, you will be entitled to 50,000 credits as well as accommodation on a planet or station of your choosing." Hackett rattled off the retirement plan as though he had said it a thousand times. Hayley wasn't stupid, she knew she wasn't the first person following the reaper war to be put in this position, and she probably won't be the last, so the amount of times the various admirals, including Hackett, must have said this was probably through the roof.

"If that's the case Admiral, is it possible for me to continue with my apartment that was on the Citadel? regarding that it's still standing, of course" The words came out Hayley's mouth without her even fully processing them, the shock of what was happening yet to hit her.

"If I recall your apartment was situated close to the presidium, where the damage was to a lesser extent. As you already own that apartment, your pay will rise to 72,000 credits." There was a flicker of disbelief in the Admiral's eyes, as though he couldn't believe that Commander Shepard, _The_ Commander Shepard was backing down. He had expected her to fight her corner a little more, to try and make him think she would be fit for active duty when the reality was she physically wouldn't be, with the mental effects of the war still having yet to manifest themselves. "Am I to assume you have made your choice?"

"Yes, Admiral"

"If that's the case, once you sign these forms the funds should be in your account within 24 hours," Shepard looked over at the messages terminal that was just within reach and opened the forms that Hackett had sent her. Like she had done with the batarian codes and Donnely's and Daniel's release, she signed them with her electronic signature, trying not to think about how these forms were some of the most significant she has ever had to sign in her life.

"It has been an honour serving in the Alliance, Admiral" She said, after moving away from the terminal.

"It has been an honour working with you, Miss Shepard." Hackett raised his hand and saluted her, and she saluted back.

"Hackett out" and that was it. Admiral Hackett's hologram blinked out of existence, and Hayley was left alone as it began to sink in that, after 14 years, she was no longer Commander Shepard, she was just plain, old Hayley.

The door to the bedroom opened and Hayley wheeled herself to the side of the bed before hoisting herself into it. She pulled the pillow from behind her head and screamed into it, totally ignoring the fact Liara was wearing a very revealing dress that would usually have caused Hayley to throw herself at her and try to put her hands and mouth on all parts of her body at once.

"Are you okay?" The asari turned onto her side and tried to pry the pillow from Hayley's hand, only for the woman to press it down on her face more. "Sweetie?" Liara had never used a name like that for her girlfriend before, but she knew a lot of couples tossed the word around.

"What?" The word was muffled through the pillow.

"What happened?" Hayley finally dragged the pillow off her face and the redness around her eyes told Liara all she needed to know and instead of the night of fun the asari originally had planned, she just held the human and cuddled her until she stopped crying and fell asleep.

"This will all be better tomorrow, I promise" Liara kissed the sleeping ex-commander before wiping a drying tear from her face and going to sleep herself.

**-Next Morning-**

The next morning, Hayley woke up with the headache that was always present after she cried herself to sleep. There was an empty spot next to her where her girlfriend was supposed to be.

She could hear movement in the living room, and she was certain it was more people than just Liara. Looking at the clock, it was early afternoon already, and while Shepard still felt tired, she had grown used to dragging herself out of bed while she still wanted to sleep and she manouvred herself into wheelchair, looking forward to next week when she could finally start her physiotherapy.

Taking herself through to the living room, she saw no one, not even the asari that seemed to have better marine sleeping habits than her.

"Liara?" Shepard's mind raced back to when she went to the shadow brokers apartment back on Illium, and the state it was left in. While the tourists house did seem quieter and a lot tidier, she couldn't help but think someone broke in and managed to silently take Liara.

"Okay this is not funny now," worry was beginning to become evident in her voice, and it was a foreign feeling to the ex-commander, as she had learned to keep worry as an inside feeling, not a tone of voice.

"Hey, Lola"

"Holy shit!" Hayley screamed in surprise and she heard James talk behind her, hurting her neck when she twisted around to look at him, "James! Why are you here?"

"Just in the neighbourhood, like we were" Hayley looked dead ahead and saw Garrus with Kaiden next to him. It felt good seeing them again and for a second she thought she was dreaming, but then she remembered that you can't feel pain in dreams and the pain in her right wrist was chronic today, so she was clearly awake.

"Surprise" Liara eventually came out from behind the staircase and she smiled awkwardly, hoping she had done the right thing.

"I hate you" Shepard laughed, lightly shoving Liara when she walked over to give her a hug. She had never thought this would be the surprise. In fact, she was expecting the asari to say she was pregnant, although she was fairly certain she wouldn't be able to become pregnant without Shepard noticing she was mapping her DNA. After all, she could tell when she was trying to look at memories that Shepard was actively trying to stop her looking at.

"Is this a good surprise?"

"As if you don't already know the answer" Liara leaned down and her and Hayley kissed, hearing Garrus say something about the couple in the background.

"Miranda called and said she should be here in about 10 minutes. Everyone else is busy at the moment but I thought this was a good start" The prospect of seeing any of her former crew filled Hayley with excitement, so seeing four in one day was more than enough. Remembering EDI was dead though made Shepard slightly anxious over Joker, and she assumed that's why he wasn't coming today.

"Ah the ice queen will grace us with her presence" Garrus chuckled to himself. He had never really liked Miranda, much like most people who met her and took her at face value, even Hayley disliked her at first, but she tried to make an effort with everyone she could and eventually worked her way through the ex-cerberus officer's icy exterior to find that she was actually quite a likeable woman underneath.

When Miranda eventually did arrive, her appearance shocked Shepard, Liara and Garrus. Kaidan and James had only really met her at Hayley's party so seeing the woman with a small scar on her jawline and a large one going from her right eyebrow down to the left side of her upper lip didn't have as much and effect on them as it did the others, especially the asari and turian who had had enough dealings with her to last a lifetime, even longer if it wasn't for Hayley being her friend.

"You look different, Lawson"

"How observant of you, Vakarian" There was a hint of humour in the australian woman's voice.

"What happened to your face?" Shepard didn't fully process the sentence before it left her mouth, and it was too late to take it back when she realised the question could be seen as offensive.

"Turns out perfect genes don't prevent all injuries from forming scars when they heal, especially when it comes to explosions. Thank god I closed my eyes" Miranda pointed at her right eye, which was still its normal blue colour and it matched her left eye, suggesting she could still see out of it.

"Ah, now if only Jack were here to talk to you about your perfect genes" Garrus certainly had a strange sense of humour, one that many people who met him embraced, mainly because it would otherwise be irritating if they didn't.

"Well I can't say it's a shame she died," the raven haired woman said without thinking, until looked at Shepard and saw the never-fuck-with-my-friends-memory look, "I mean, she was unstable and was a liability to the mission. Honestly I don't understand why-"

"So, Miranda, what do you think of Shepard's new scars?" Liara interjected when she felt tension rise between the two. As much as they got on, it was still fairly easy for them to rile each other up.

Miranda walked over to the asari's bondmate and inspected her face. Although Liara was the only woman Hayley would ever consider doing anything with, she was only human and was attracted to Miranda, so having her so close caused her to tense up, something the other woman noticed as she gave Shepard a reassuring smile. She was used to people finding her attractive, her father had her genes engineered for that purpose and while she never cared most of the time, the amount of respect she held for Hayley meant that she found it hard to shrug off every single look and compliment her forming commanding officer gave her.

She prodded a particularly prominent scar on her forehead, albeit lightly, before saying, "well, the cybernetics appear to have taken care of any of your reconstruction scars that may have reappeared, but any other scar is as permanent as mine" Miranda stood back up and shook her head, "you had to go and bloody scuff up my hard work, didn't you?"

"I'm sorry, if I knew you'd be so annoyed, I'd have told harbinger to go easy on the face" Hayley laughed and Miranda smiled in response. She caught a glimpse of Liara and the look on her face at the joke made Shepard realise she really needed to talk to her about everything that happened on Earth sooner rather than later. Although the asari stopped the human delving into her memories from then, and from after the Normandy SR-1 being blown up, the emotions linked to those memories were strong enough that they seeped through the black boxes and into the meld whenever Hayley tried to look at them. Even after 5 months and just over 3 years, respectively, those memories still caused Liara a lot of pain and misery.


End file.
